Close Lid = display turns off

Hello
I have a Dell Inspiron 1520 and there is a standart feature that when you close the lid and the display turns off.

That's perfectly normal.

But I have a 19' LCD and I connected it to my Dell and extended my desktop.
It kinda sucks that laptop's display is 1440x900 and the 19' LCD is 1280x1024 but it's quite cool to have 2 displays.

And here is my problem:
I tried to play a movie and move it to the LCD because it's bigger and good but when i want to close the lid so that the laptop doesn't get in my way of vision and both displays go black (turn off) and when i open the lid both displays have low resolution for a sec and all my icons are messed up.

So how should i configure the displays so that when i close the lid, windows XP understands that i want the other one to continue working and when i open it - everything is back to normal.


(there is a option for 100% LCD usage and no laptop display but i don't want that)

Thank you in advance for your ideas.

 

ya, mine did the same thing. only work around i found was to change the "Lid Close" options under the power scheme in vista to always stay on when charging. i forget exactly how i did it, but it was to that effect.

works like a charm, i plug it in the laptop LCD shuts off when i close the lid but my tv screen doesn't change.

 

If the previous poster's trick doesn't work, you could always disconnect the magnetic lid switch in the palmrest, but this obviously requires you to to a not so simple disassembly. Check the service manual.